Niece of Ralph Lauren arrested in Ireland for air rage

Jewelry designer Jenny Lauren, a niece of fashion icon Ralph Lauren, was arrested on board a flight bound for New York’s JFK during an apparent air rage incident. The flight had departed Barcelona a few hours earlier.

The flight was forced to land at Shannon Airport, in the west of Ireland. The successful, 41-year-old was charged at Shannon Garda station, in Clare, over the bust-up on board.

The captain of the Delta Air Lines flight, with 209 passengers and crew on board, diverted to Shannon airport at 1.05pm, on Monday afternoon, as a result of the alleged incident. Lauren was arrested by police after touching down at 1.47pm.

The New Yorker was then brought by police for questioning to Shannon Garda Station where she also met with a representative of the US Embassy in Ireland.

Police officers also took six witness statements from the captain of the flight and five other Delta flight crew as part of the investigation into the incident.

Shannon police lay three separate charges against Lauren arising from the incident. The designer spent the night in custody at the station pending a hearing before Killaloe District Court.

The Delta Airlines flight remained on the tarmac for over two hours at Shannon and before continuing its journey to JFK in New York at 4:15pm.

Lauren operates a high end jewelry business – Jenny Lauren Jewelry – in the US. A 2012 New York Times profile on Lauren reported that prices of her jewelry range from $350 for a pair of earrings to $5,000 for a necklace.

The designer’s 2004 memoir "Homesick: A Memoir of Family, Food and Finding Hope" recounted her battle with an eating disorder in her teens and 20s.

Last year, Forbes magazine estimated that Lauren’s famous uncle, 74-year old Ralph Lauren, had a net worth of $7.7billion thanks to his worldwide clothing empire. The Bronx native started his business in the 1960s selling neckties in Manhattan.